Morning journal and courier., 1887-02-15
THE SOIL OF WYOMING.
The Land Cut by Clutches and ssDraws s
 -The Valleys and "BottOms.''

N
 -The Valleys and ssBOttOms.'
 Wyoming Letter in the Detroit Freee Press.1
 East Nebraska is prairie; west Nebraska, with it's alkali streams and sand hills, be- gins to take somewhat of the character of this country, with it's strange unevenness But in Wyoming we reach the colsunma- tion of roughness in what may have once been prairie. To be sure, as We look from car window 1l if 1n tRf ffqRrjng. We may see the orater like knobs about ''plaln, go seems
 =. e +,o,,so,as of acres of verdure. The land as a rule is an alkali, soft limestone and sandstone formation, the home of the nutritious Buffalo grass and sagebrush. At
 tempt to ride across one of the plains and you find how great the disparity. The land
 is cut in every conceivable direction by
 abrupt gulches and 'fdraws," with perpen-
 dicr1lar sides from thirty to one hundred feet
 deep. entirely concealed by their character
 until you are right upon them.
 There is no water in these this season. They usually follow the natural watershed, but head anywhere and everywhere upon the plain, and strangest of all are as deep and abrupt in their head as anywhere. You ind the valleys but a repetition of what you see on a larger scale from point of emlnence- an apparent plain and wonder 8 crater-h like bluff-but upon ascending it's steep side you are surprised to find it's summit but the boundary of another plateau with gulches deeper and wider. 1 spoke of valleys mo- ment ago. this country has none after the | fashion of any eastern conceptions. The streams are few and far between, usually l from twelve to twenty miles and more, and then the merest rivuets at this season, after sinking for miles in their course and occa- | sionaIlp breaking out spring like and flowing a short distance. These riVulets have mar 1 TOW ''bottoms" often quite fertile, but
 scarcely more than garden spots, with few l scrubby cottonwoods and oX-elders thinly | hidden from view by the proximity of the l neighboriag bluffs. When wider and more 1 like valleys as Is the bottom of the Platte, l they are too sandy for cultivation. It is l only by irrigation that even the "bottoms" l are made productive. It is along these bot | toms that the cattle have been accustomed to l water and that she ranches have been built. All this beautiful country to look upon is ut | terly beyond the reach of the plow or any agricultural crop, and is only saved from ut ter desert by the spring rains which grow the | grass in a short month or SO.
 | Just break the sod for any purpose and the
 soil is the sport of the winds. The only
 possible hope would be in a1tesian wells, but
 they could not be reached for thousands oi feet and possibly not then without great ex- pense, but with success probably scarce | enouoh to sunrly- and beast. There art
 ut present four ways by which men can ac
 quire land in the territory-homestead Gone l hundred and sixty acres), pre- emptlon (on' hundred and sixUy), timber culture (one hun
 1 dred and sixty) and desert reclalmlng (sl-
 hundred and forty) Now none of thes rights can be exercised except along tn streams and then the very loosest construc l tion must be made of the conditions applca -ble only to an unbroken prairie.